Thanksgiving Side Dishes – Branching Out
Sometimes Thanksgiving food gets a little old. We have stopped doing mashed potatoes altogether, because no-one in this calorie conscious age wants to waste their calories on potatoes and gravy, not when there is roquefort dressing and pecan pie to consider! So here are some relatively low calorie additions we have made in recent years, trying to substitute rich taste for fat.
Balsamic roasted Sweet Potatoes
(Oh, so easy!)
Scrub sweet potatoes and take off any growths, etc. Leave skin on and cut into circles about 1″ thick (2.24 cm) Spray a baking pan with olive oil, and lay sweet potato rounds in the pan – they don’t have to be flat. Sprinkle with sea salt (yes! it matters!)
Make up a mixture of about 1 cup olive oil to 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar, and sprinkle about half of this mixture over the sweet potatoes. Put them in the oven about two hours before the turkey is finished roasting, and after the first hour, every fifteen minutes or so, when you baste the turkey with turkey juices, baste the sweet potatoes with the balsamic vinegar and olive oil solution. The roasting concentrates the sweet flavor, which is complemented by the vinegar.
Green Beans
It’s the French in me. I gotta have the green beans.
Fresh green beans are best – make sure to take off the strings, and I like to cut off the little ends, too. Bring a pot of water to a boil, pop the beans in and WATCH closely! As soon as they turn bright green – about one minute – take them off the heat, and maybe one minute later, pour out all the water. Put 2 Tablespoons of butter in the pot with the green beans. Sprinkle a little sea salt over them. That’s it. They’re good, just like that.
Thanksgiving Spinach
If you can get your hands on fresh spinach, that is the best. In a very tall pot, sautee about five cloves of finely chopped garlic in really good olive oil (about 1/4 cup), turn the heat down, add just a little water and add a whole lot of fresh spinach. Put the lid on. Give it maybe five minutes to steam down, then open the pot, add a little sea salt, and stir so that the spinach glistens and the garlic is mixed well into the spinach. Oh! So simple. So delicious!
*If I knew, really knew the way Kuwaitis and Qatteris know, how to make machboos, I would serve Machboos with the Thanksgiving meal. It would be perfect.
More Side Dishes – Salads to Give Thanks For
For me, the cranberry salad is mandatory – but not for you! If you want to give it a try, the Sultan Center has cranberries in the frozen section. Frozen is good enough. I have even made this with jellied whole cranberries from a can, but that is sheer desperation.
Mom’s Cranberry Salad
I must have given this recipe to nearly 100 people by now – it never fails to make a big hit. In Tunis, and in Amman, where fresh cranberries were no where to be found, whole cranberry sauce dissolved down worked wonderfully. It’s amazing what you can do when you are motivated! Note – I use raspberry or cherry or strawberry jello instead of lemon, because I like it to be red for the holidays.
1 1/2 C cranberries (wash, pick over and cook until soft
1 1/2 C water
add 1 Cup sugar and boil one minute
add 1 small pkg lemon jello (I use raspberry or cherry or strawberry because I like red)
When all is dissolved, add juice of one No. 1 can of pineapple (Mom’s recipe says a #1 can – use one of the small cans.) When cool, add diced pineapple from can, and 1/2 cup finely diced celery and 1/4 cup chopped walnuts. Refrigerate until firm.
One small buffet mold.
(This recipe is from the 1950’s. I double everything, Pour into mold for the holidays, or into a crystal bowl from which it can be served without having to unmold)
Mom’s Roquefort Dressing
This recipe is so BAD for you. So much salt! So much fat! So incredibly rich and delicious, and so simple to make. They have REAL French Roquefort right now at the Sultan Center. No, I do not work for the Sultan Center. Momma says if it isn’t real Roquefort, don’t bother.)
1 pint sour cream
1/2 teaspoon each:
garlic salt
celery salt
pepper
paprika (red powdered paprika, best from Hungary)
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2 Tablespoons vinegar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 lb Roquefort cheese
Mix all ingredients together except Roquefort, then carefully fold in cheese. Serve with green salad, but in a separate serving bowl so guests can control how much or how little they want to use! This is also good as a dip with fresh raw vegetables. Oh, so rich!
Side Dishes – More to Give Thanks For!
Take another deep breath. These are not mandatory, these are just options!
Shrimp Cocktail
Buy BIG shrimp. Take the shells off, and with a tiny paring knife, make a tiny line down the back of the shrimp where you see that black stuff, and take the black stuff out. (Don’t think about this, just do it.) Bring water to simmer, put shrimp in and TAKE OFF heat. Let them turn pink – about one minute – and pour water out immediately.
Williamsburg Peanut Soup
(If you have help and want to serve in courses)
Fresh tomatoes, canned tomatoes or stewed tomatoes, chopped and heat in pot.
Chicken broth – together with the tomatoes, about enough for all who are coming.
Sauteed onions if you like them can go in, too.
Add glops of CHUNKY peanut butter into the hot liquid and stir until you like the consistency. Salt if you think it needs it. Ladle into bowls and then sprinkle a few chopped peanuts over each dish. People will think you labored for hours on this soup, and it is SO delicious. Big bang for the buck on this one!
Shrimp Cocktail Sauce: Take about a cup of Heinz Ketchup, add 1 Tablespoon Horseradish and 1 Tablespoon very fine SWEET, finely chopped pickle or pickle relish. Mix together. Some people add a little chili powder, but you know your own family.
Use bowls or champagne glasses. Put a little salad greens in the bottom, and place shrimp over the rim around the glass or bowl. Put cocktail sauce in the well formed in the center, right on the greens (Hardly anybody ever eats the greens, they are just there to be pretty.)
Cornbread Stuffing
(Mandatory if you are married to a Southerner)
You can find cornmeal in any grocery store, but we like the coarser grind found in the health foods section.
Make a batch of cornbread according to the instructions on the corn meal you have bought. Cool it slightly.
While the cornbread is baking, sautee:
1 large onion, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
1/4 cup chopped parsley
in 1/2 cup butter.
(You can use corn oil, but it won’t have the same flavor.)
Sautee 1/2 lb Jimmy Dean sausage, mild (here, in Islamic Kuwait, I am using smoked turkey sausage)
When cornbread is slightly cool, crumble it into a large bowl, add the sauteed onion, celery, parsley, butter and sausage, and stir together. Add 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans. At this point, you can store in the refrigerator until the turkey is baked.
Gather one – two cups turkey broth, mix into cornbread mix with one egg, salt, pepper, a little sage and thyme to taste. Pour into baking dish and bake 30 minutes at 300°. Serve with turkey as side dish.
The Turkey: Centerpiece of the Meal
I imagine it is possible to have Thanksgiving without a turkey, but I have never, never in my life seen one. Wherever we are, by hook or by crook, we find a turkey.
The irony is that it doesn’t even matter if you like turkey that much – and turkey can be tough and dry if overcooked – it is tradition. You can skip other things, but if you don’t have a turkey, you probably should at least have a paper turkey in the center of your table, something, anything, that will satisfy the need for “rightness” as in “this isn’t right!” if there is no turkey.
The good news is that left over turkey makes great sandwiches, filling for burritos, makes great sweet n’ sour, makes great turkey-noodle soup, cassarols – there are a lot of uses for cooked, left over turkey. If that doesn’t appeal to you, buy a bunch of those wonderful tin trays with lids at the supermarkets and send all your guests home with leftovers!
Your turkey will come with instructions. I usually thaw mine in the refrigerator – it takes up space that on Thanksgiving Day, when take the turkey out to cook, there is space for things I need to store for dinner. Space in the refrigerator will be a very good thing (says Martha).
Be sure to take out the innards. If you are going to make gravy, this is what most people use. You slow simmer the neck and gizzards in about a litre of water. You can pull meat off, and be sure to get all the bones out. That stock will be part of the gravy later on.
Your turkey roasting pan should have sides at least 10 cm (4 inches) high, because of all the turkey juice that leaks out. HINT: Spray that pan liberally with oil – it will be easier to clean down the road, trust me on this. I have a wonderful kitchen gadget that you put olive oil in and pump, and it sprays pure olive oil just like one of those store-bought sprays full of chemicals.
Spray the pan. Spray the turkey. Place the turkey in the pan, breast side up. (I have cooked them upside down and they were OK, too.) Put strips of fatty bacon over the top of the turkey.
Now here is the great secret: Put your turkey in a paper bag, tray and all, and staple shut. If you are using a meat thermometer, put it in the turkey right through the paper bag, it’s OK. Put the turkey in the oven at the temperature it says in your instructions that came with the turkey. (Usually around 180 C.) Every 30 minutes or so, spray that bag with water, like with the sprayer you use to spray clothes that need ironing.
When the turkey has an hour of cooking left, tear off that paper bag and begin basting, which is dripping the turkey juices back over the turkey. Baste every 15 minutes or so.
The house should smell wonderful by now. The turkey needs to come out of the oven about half an hour before serving. It needs to sit for 10 minutes and then someone needs to carve it, i.e. cut slices of it for serving. Often the big turkey wings are put on the plate of sliced turkey and some young man will eat the turkey right off the bone.
Second – Get Organized
Here’s what you need for this step – paper, pen, phone, e-mail, WOM (word of mouth). Figure out who you want to spend Thanksgiving with. Give them a call. If they sound genuinely disappointed because they have visitors from out-of-town, tell them to bring their visitors – Thanksgiving is a great holiday for flexibility. (We usually have more than one table going, one for the kids, too, or several mixed up)
Our book says that we are to entertain strangers, that sometimes when we welcome strangers, we welcome angels without knowing it. Sometimes a stranger adds the most amazing memory.Our first married Thankgiving, we had a soldier join us who would soon be leaving the military. We still remember his delight and amazement at being included. We’ve never fogotten him – he added so much to that day.
When someone asks what they can bring – have some ideas ready! It’s usually safe to ask someone to bring a dessert – or drinks – or dinner rolls. If they have something else in mind, unless it is totally outlandish, say “yes” and just roll with it. It’s part of the fun.
Outline what you want to serve – finger foods before dinner, dinner – courses if you are including soup, dessert and coffee (in the same room? move to another room?)
Make a grocery list. Do the major shopping now, so you have everything you need. Go with what is available – for example, last night in the fish market, I saw the most amazing, huge shrimp, and the man told me they are from Kuwait. Believe me, we will have shrimp cocktail on our menu this year!
Figure out how you want the table(s) and check your linens to be sure what you need is clean and ironed. Make sure the silver is polished, the crystal washed and sparkling. Do this now! You don’t want to have to worry about this close to Thanksgiving. Give yourself the gift of time, by doing the little things in advance that can throw you off course if you let it go to the last minute. We want you to be thankful on Thanksgiving, happy and relaxed and delighted to see your friends – and that takes some preparation and work ahead of time.
(My preference is to set up a buffet table – that way people can eat what they want and pass on what they don’t want, without being conspicuous. You know, like you may adore creamed onions, and the kids will hate them! It’s OK. They’re kids. It’s Thanksgiving.)
Take another deep breath – honestly, this is going to be fun.
First – Take a Deep Breath (Thanksgiving 2)
You inspired me! I didn’t expect such a response to the post on Thanksgiving. Once again, I am baffled, and delighted, at what strikes your fancy.
So – how to do Thanksgiving. To do it properly, you have to focus on the right things. So first, take a deep breath, close your eyes, and allow yourself to feel thankful. Even in the worst of years, there are blessings. Bring them to mind. Feel them. Rejoice! Now you are prepared.
It’s all about the gathering. Yes, we have traditional foods, but in different parts of the country, traditions vary. Turkey is traditional, for example, but it can get so boring. In the South, you can buy a turkey that has been smoked (lovely!) or a turkey that has been stuffed with a duck that has been stuffed with a chicken. When we lived in Germany, I inserted tiny slivers of garlic under the skin – like hundreds of slivers – and served the slices with a variety of French mustards (WOW!). We’ll talk turkey in the next post.
Some Thanksgiving favorites:
Turkey
Stuffing (also called Dressing)
Cranberry sauce
Mashed Potatoes + Gravy
Sweet Potatoes (usually served “candied” i.e. with a sweet sauce, covered with tiny marshmallows)
Green Salad + dressing
black pitted olives (kids put them on their fingers)
green beans
(South: creamed onions, cornbread stuffing, macaroni and cheese, jambalaya, peanut soup)
(Pacific Northwest: shrimp cocktail, smoked salmon, smoked oysters)
Desserts: Pumpkin Pie, Mincemeat Pie, Fruitcake, etc. etc . . . )
The Thanksgiving Table is an excuse to get out all the good stuff you don’t use every day – beautiful white linens for the cloth and napkins, your silver, your crystal, the best china . . . polish up the silver candlesticks, put fresh candles in the crystal ones . . . but this is not the HEART of Thanksgiving, only the icing. We have had fabulous Thanksgivings with plates on our laps, as we gathered together with friends in countries where Thanksgiving is totally unknown. It’s the gathering that is important, not the food, not the table.
The Feast of Thanksgiving
This coming Thursday, the fourth Thursday in November, is the American Thanksgiving. Although it has a religious context – giving thanks for all we have been given – it is not a church holiday, but a secular one.
A group of people fled England (we call them the Pilgrims) seeking a place where they could practice their particular and very fundamental religion without persecution. They landed in a new country and established a colony. A good many of them died in the first year – from starvation, from minor ailments like ear infections that went untreated and became more serious illnesses. At the end of the harvest, the following year, they gave a great feast to celebrate those who had survived.
Honored guests were the Native Americans, who had welcomed the newcomers, showed them berries and forms of wildlife good for gathering and hunting, and without whom the Pilgrims could not have survived. At the table were foods never seen in the old world – turkey, corn, cranberries, possibly potatoes. . .
Wherever we are in the world, we take this 4th Thursday in November to give thanks, and to feast, preferably with family and friends.
My nieces, Little Diamond and Sparkling Diamond grew up going to the local soup kitchen on Thanksgiving with their parents to serve the poor and homeless their Thanksgiving meal. Many of us have special church services that day. Most of us spend a good part of the day in the kitchen!
We have so much to be thankful for this year. Although my parents are old, I have been able to go back and help them several times this year. The next generation of our family has (mostly) finished school and all have jobs they love doing. We shifted our tent successfully to another country this year, and are having a great time getting to know Kuwait. We have found a church here and are thankful to be able to worship freely. Through another friend, we met a family here we dearly love, and we will spend Thanksgiving with them. I am sure it will be a mountain of food.
I will be fixing my Mom’s cranberry salad, cornbread stuffing for my husband-of-Souther-origins, a pumpkin pie, and some balsamic roasted sweet-potatoes (the potatoes are tradition, the balsamic is not) and a few other dishes. We try to balance the traditional with something new from time to time. We will break open one of the fruitcakes to serve with the other desserts. Mom’s Fruitcake Recipe
You will know where people will be gathering and feasting by the delicious aroma of roasting turkey as you take advantage of this gorgeous weather to go out walking . . . We give thanks for the beautiful weather, too.
Mom’s Fruit Cake Recipe
Wooo Hooooooo! The fruitcakes are in the oven, and already the house smells wonderful. I’ve been making these cakes since I got married. I don’t think I have missed a year, but I may have. I grew up smelling these delicious cakes every winter. I don’t think my Mom makes them every year any more. I wish I were close enough to pop one into her refrigerator for their holidays.
Mom’s Fruit Cake
Even people who think they HATE fruit cake like this fruit cake. It has a secret ingredient – chocolate!
This is the original recipe. I remember cutting the dates and prunes with scissors when I was little; now you can buy dates and prunes without pits and chop them in the food processor – a piece of cake!
1 cup boiling water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup lard or butter
1 T. cinnamon
1 t. cloves
3 Tablespoons chocolate powder
1/4 cup jelly
1 cup seeded raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup candied citron
1/2 cup cut prunes
1/2 cup cut dates
Put all in a pan on stove and bring to a boil. Boil for three minutes. Let cool. Add:
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
Flavor with lemon
Bake at 350° in loaf pans for one hour. Makes 2 normal bread loaf sized cakes.
My variations: I put in about three times the fruit, the difference primarily in the candied citron – I prefer using whole candied cherries, because they are so pretty when the loafs are cut. This recipe doubles, or quadruples with no problems.
Pans: Mom used to line all the pans with brown paper and grease the paper. I grease the pans, then dust with more of the chocolate powder. Use a good quality chocolate, not cocoa. When the cakes come out of the oven, let them cool for ten minutes, loosen them with a knife, then they will shake out easily. Let continue to cool until they are totally cool, then wrap in plastic wrap, with several layers, then foil, then seal in a sealable plastic bag. Let them age a couple months in a corner of your refrigerator. I make mine around Halloween, and serve the first one at Thanksgiving.
I never make these the same any two years in a row. This is the first year, ever, that I won’t be using any brandy – alcohol in Kuwait being against the law. Yeh, I have some friends who laugh and say “you can get it anywhere!” but we made a decision to obey the law. Only rarely do I regret it . . . sigh . . .fruitcakes really need brandy.
Update: If you are in a country where brandy is available, and if you want to use brandy, here is how to use it in this recipe. You know how raisins get all dried out and taste yucky in fruitcakes? The night before you intend to make the fruitcakes, take all the raisins you intend to use (depending on how many fruitcakes you intend to make) and put them in a glass container. Pour brandy over them, to cover. Microwave just to the boiling point. Let stand in the microwave overnight.
The next day, you can drain that brandy and use it in a stew or something, and in the meanwhile, you now have plump, juicy raisins to use in your fruitcake, and just a hint of brandy flavor. Yummmm!
What is YOUR Comfort Food?
You know how it is. You’re not yourself. Your throat hurts or your tummy hurts and Mom fixes something something you love, and it happens so often throughout your childhood that when you get to be an adult, and you find yourself sick, it’s the food you think of.
And, of course, it depends on the illness. For tummy things, I remember chicken broth and jello. But for colds and flu, it was always tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. Now, even if I just had a bad day, grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup can still cheer me up.
For my husband, raised in another part of the country, it is vegetable soup and cornbread. After we married, I learned to make cornbread in an iron skillet, and it is pretty good. He breaks it up and puts it in a glass of milk, though, and I can’t even watch him eat it.
Our son grew up in Tunis – when he has a sore throat, nothing will do but mint tea.
So what is YOUR comfort food? What did your Mamma (or Papa) make you when you were sick as a child? What do you dream of even now, all grown up, but sick and miserable?
25 Reasons Why You Should Drink Green Tea
I never get sick. I am sick now. I thought it was just an allergic tickle in the back of my throat, but it turned into a full blown cold/flu, whatever it is that is going around.
A friend sent me this. I am drinking Green Tea like crazy. I’m not entirely sure I buy the entire list, especially green tea stopping the spread of Hiv/AIDs, that seems a little far fetched – wouldn’t we have heard about that? But it’s an interesting list.
by http://www.FineGreenTea.com
Green tea has increasingly become a very popular drink worldwide because of its immensely powerful health benefits.
It is extraordinarily amazing what green tea can do for your health.
And if you’re not drinking 3 to 4 cups of green tea today, you’re definitely NOT doing your health a big favor.
Here Are The 25 Reasons Why You Should Start Drinking Green Tea Right Now:
1. Green Tea and Cancer
Green tea helps reduce the risk of cancer.
The antioxidant in green tea is 100 times more effective than vitamin C and 25 times better than vitamin E.
This helps your body at protecting cells from damage believed to be linked to cancer.
http://www.finegreentea.com/green-tea-cancer.html
2. Green Tea and Heart Disease
Green tea helps prevent heart disease and stroke by lowering the level of cholesterol.
Even after the heart attack, it prevents cell deaths and speeds up the recovery of heart cells.
http://www.finegreentea.com/green-tea-and-heart-disease.html
3. Green Tea and Anti-Aging
Green tea contains antioxidant known as polyphenols which fight against free radicals.
What this means it helps you fight against aging and promotes longevity.
4. Green Tea and Weight Loss
Green tea helps with your body weight loss. Green tea burns fat and boosts your metabolism rate naturally.
It can help you burn up to 70 calories in just one day.
That translates to 7 pounds in one year.
http://www.finegreentea.com/green-tea-weight-loss.html
5. Green Tea and Skin
Antioxidant in green tea protects the skin from the harmful effects of free radicals, which cause wrinkling and skin aging.
Green tea also helps fight against skin cancer.
http://www.finegreentea.com/green-tea-skin.html
6. Green Tea and Arthritis
Green tea can help prevent and reduce the risk of rheumatoid arthritis.
Green tea has benefit for your health as it protects the cartilage by blocking the enzyme that destroys cartilage.
http://www.finegreentea.com/green-tea-and-arthritis.html
7. Green Tea and Bones
The very key to this is high fluoride content found in green tea.
It helps keep your bones strong.
If you drink green tea every day, this will help you preserve your bone density.
8. Green Tea and Cholesterol
Green tea can help lower cholesterol level.
It also improves the ratio of good cholesterol to bad cholesterol, by reducing bad cholesterol level.
http://www.finegreentea.com/green-tea-and-cholesterol.html
9. Green Tea and Obesity
Green tea prevents obesity by stopping the movement of glucose in fat cells.
If you are on a healthy diet, exercise regularly and drink green tea, it is unlikely you’ll be obese.
10. Green Tea and Diabetes
Green tea improves lipid and glucose metabolisms, prevents sharp increases in blood sugar level, and balances your metabolism rate.
http://www.finegreentea.com/diabetes-and-green-tea.html
11. Green Tea and Alzheimer’s
Green tea helps boost your memory.
And although there’s no cure for Alzheimer’s, it helps slow the process of reduced acetylcholine in the brain, which leads to Alzheimer’s.
12. Green Tea and Parkinson’s
Antioxidants in green tea helps prevent against cell damage in the brain, which could cause Parkinson’s. People drinking green tea also are less likely to progress with Parkinson’s.
13. Green Tea and Liver Disease
Green tea helps prevent transplant failure in people with liver failure. Researches showed that green tea destroys harmful free radicals in fatty livers.
http://www.finegreentea.com/green-tea-liver.html
14. Green Tea and High Blood Pressure
Green tea helps prevent high blood pressure.
Drinking green tea helps keep your blood pressure down by repressing angiotensin, which leads to high blood pressure.
http://www.finegreentea.com/green-tea-and-high-blood-pressure.html
15. Green Tea and Food Poisoning
Catechin found in green tea can kill bacteria which causes food poisoning and kills the toxins produced by those bacteria.
16. Green Tea and Blood Sugar
Blood sugar tends to increase with age, but polyphenols and polysaccharides in green tea help lower your blood sugar level.
17. Green Tea and Immunity
Polyphenols and flavenoids found in green tea help boost your immune system, making your health stronger in fighting against infections.
18. Green Tea and Cold and Flu
Green tea prevents you from getting a cold or flu.
Vitamin C in green tea helps you treat the flu and the common cold.
19. Green Tea and Asthma
Theophylline in green tea relaxes the muscles which support the bronchial tubes, reducing the severity of asthma.
20. Green Tea and Ear Infection
Green tea helps with ear infection problem.
For natural ear cleaning, soak a cotton ball in green tea and clean the infected ear.
21. Green Tea and Herpes
Green tea increases the effectiveness of topical interferon treatment of herpes.
First green tea compress is applied, and then let the skin dry before the interferon treatment.
22. Green Tea and Tooth Decay
Green tea destroys bacteria and viruses that cause many dental diseases.
It also slows the growth of bacteria which leads to bad breath.
http://www.finegreentea.com/green-tea-tooth-decay.html
23. Green Tea and Stress
L-theanine, which is a kind of amino acids in green tea, can help relieve stress and anxiety.
24. Green Tea and Allergies
EGCG found in green tea relieves allergies.
So, if you have allergies, you should really consider drinking green tea.
http://www.finegreentea.com/green-tea-allergy.html
25. Green Tea and HIV
Scientists in Japan have found that EGCG (Epigallocatechin Gallate) in green tea can stop HIV from binding to healthy immune cells.
What this means is that green tea can help stop the HIV virus from spreading.
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